


Sunday Hardcore Matinee

by KingRichRock



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Comfort, F/F, F/M, Nostalgia, SnowBarry - Freeform, hardcore kids, olicity - Freeform, punk rock kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-01-29 18:19:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12636570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KingRichRock/pseuds/KingRichRock
Summary: "We had each otherThings are different todayWe had each other and the glory never fades away"Or, in which both Caitlin Snow and Barry Allen are two massive punk rock nerds in college who don't know each other. But they get by with a little help from their friends, classic punk rock, and good reliving the angsty teenage glory days down at the good old "Sunday Hardcore Matinee"Lyrics and title are taken from the awesome Dropkick Murphy's song.





	1. Wrong Way Kids

**Author's Note:**

> So this has been an idea in my head for a little while because I just see teen Barry and Caitlin being super into punk because they were both intellectual outcasts and whatnot and also cause it serves the purpose of this story. Every Chapter derives its title from a Punk song and this thing should be like 10 chapters maybe. Not a lot of angst but maybe some but anyway I want to thank my super awesome friend and super supporter/beta Eccacia my dude thanks for being awesome. Can never stress that enough.
> 
> Chapter one is Wrong Way Kids, by Bad Religion (2010) 
> 
> "Stop them from shimmering away, On blank sidewalk glittering asphalt somewhere summer days, The Wrong Way Kids were something more than friends, Navigating a sprawl without end."

_Barry_

Central City University. Not bad for a state school. Great biology undergrad program. Incredible computer tech program. Great physics department. Three buildings named for various members of the Queen family. And of course, the track and field arena.

Barry Allen, 20-year-old track star extraordinaire had been on the down and out for the last three races. He had been slow ever since coming off of his broken leg a few weeks back. His last race had proven he still wasn’t at 100%, and even though he knew recovery was a long road, he was feeling impatient and irritated by the constant issues of his journey back to the top. Namely the ache in his right leg and having to suffer through the pop songs on iris’s phone as her and Oliver coached/cheered him on from the booth. 

He still had 5 seconds to shave off before the end of the week, but he couldn’t manage to get motivated to whatever had been at the top of the charts from earlier that week. He knew Oliver had some classic rock on his phone, but he wasn’t in the mood for Black Sabbath or Zeppelin. He knew his Spotify had the perfect playlist for the occasion, but getting Iris on board was always a challenge. She was not, as the cool kids would say, punk as fuck.

He walked up the stands to the announcer’s booth, where he was greeted by way of a smirk from liver and a glare from Iris.

“No. Don’t you dare Bartholomew Henry Allen. Don’t you dare.” She said, lacking any serious conviction but still putting up the same front she did since they were kids.

“Well damn Iris, and here I was thinking I would dare.” Barry retorted, a snort coming from behind them that Barry knew was Oliver. Because of course Oliver would find this humorous. Of course he would.

“Ugh. Fine. But We’re listening to my phone on the car ride back to the apartment.” Iris countered, unplugging her phone and pushing the aux cord into the bottom of Barry’s smartphone. “I’m just gonna guess ‘Sick runnin jams’ is what you want me to pay?” She finished, a sigh at her oldest friend’s massive nerdy qualities.

With that, and a satisfied smirk on the face of the Oliver, Barry went back down to the track. After his stretches were completed, he waited for the tell-tale signs of _Supersonic_ to begin blaring over the PA, the overdriven guitar propelling him forward as he felt himself grow lighter in elation, each foot making solid contact, the pain he had been feeling earlier being alleviated by the endorphins in his system from finally feeling free. And it was a feeling he always came back to with his punk collection. And it was a feeling unlike any other when he finished 8 seconds faster than he had planned to, the last chords of _Let Us Hear Your Voice _that he finished his mile, Oliver and Iris sitting at the bleachers to meet him, grins on their faces.__

“That was great Barry. You’ll get Thawne next time.” Oliver said, and the mini glare from iris had him on course correction. “Eobard, of course. I hear that Eddie guy is a pretty fine fellow.” Oliver said, scratching behind his neck as Barry let out a laugh that he felt like he’d been holding in for a long time. The sound of _Rejected _was still blaring over the loudspeakers in the arena, but for Barry, it was like a calm he hadn’t felt in a long time. A very long time.__

_Caitlin:_

Lab had run late. It always did. But at least she had Cisco and Felicity with her for the inevitable long walk from the Queen Science and Engineering Building to the dorms always brought them past the Central City University Arena, a building Caitlin hadn’t been in since freshman orientation. And the usually quiet and dark arena had lights on and music blaring through the walls that she would recognize anywhere. Except it cut out, and she found herself disappointed for being disappointed that some jocks could fully appreciate Bad Religion's _Quality or Quantity _.__

____

__

As usual, she was so lost in her own thoughts that when Felicity and Cisco pulled her behind the walled off stairs, she was surprised until she saw said jocks walking past her. She couldn’t make them out in the dark, but Felicity and Cisco were obviously aware of who they were.

“Dude.” Cisco whispered, “That was Oliver Queen and Barry Allen.”

“And don’t forget CCU Review Chief Editor Iris West.” Felicity added, in awe.

“Those names all sound familiar. But why do I care, and why am I hiding?” Caitlin huffed, stepping out from the darkness, the other trio having passed them by without a second glance.

“Because the Queen family owns like half of the campus and like all of Star City and also because he’s the quarterback for the football team. Because Barry Allen was the track all-star darling until he broke his leg and lost in his first match back to Keystone U’s asshole in residence Eobard Thawne. Or maybe because Iris West caught and exposed that grade trading ring last year in the English Department.” Cisco said, the three returning to their walk back to the undergraduate dorms.

“Again, why were we hiding? Why do I care?” Caitlin reiterated, a bit of annoyance in her voice.

“Because we’re nerds and they are so not.” Felicity retorted.

“This isn’t high school anymore Fel. No one is going to beat us up or take our lunch money. We’re adults. Kind of.” Caitlin said, feeling exasperated but remembering the cutting words and pain caused by mean kids growing up.

“Best not to tempt fate.” Cisco said, and their dorm building came into sight.

“One of them was listening to Bad Religion over the PA. They can’t be all that bad.” Caitlin said, her voice a little small. Because why would she defend any of them? She didn’t know them.

“God you would base the fundamental principle of whether or not you think someone is okay because they listen to an old punk band.” Cisco joked.

“They’re old, but the music is just as important now as ever,” She retorted, rolling her eyes. “and anyway, it’s just an observation.”

“You have that look on your face. I know you’re bummed you missed the show with them and Against Me! but that just happened to be the night of Dr. Wells’ presentation on dark matter. Worth it, right?” Cisco said, and she knew, deep down he was right.

But missing your favorite band, anytime they were in town and you could have gone was always painful. They didn’t get it, but not everyone does. And Caitlin knew that she would be catching them at the Punk Rock Festival that happened in Keystone every summer so she guessed it would all work out in the end.

Caitlin let silence be her answer, and unlocked the door to her and Felicity’s tiny dorm room, complete with two twin beds on either side of the room, a small TV on their conjoined mini dressers. And their desks pushed together in the middle of the very small room to establish a boundary for the sake of sanity. The mini fridge with Felicity’s mini wines and Caitlin’s bottles of beer. Because college.

With Cisco back in his own dorm across the hall, him and Wally already having powered up their Xbox for a night of Halo and bad decisions, she decided to change and get ready for bed.

She let her hair out of the ponytail that lab had required of her and changed from her pants into comfortable sleep shorts and left on her comfy Descendents ‘Milo Goes to College’ T-shirt from that day and went to go to sleep. Felicity had logged onto her computer to play one of her online games until some unreasonable hour of the morning, and Caitlin knew she should sleep. But no sleep would be complete without her putting in her earbuds and playing an album to calm her nerves.

Minor Threat’s ‘Complete Discography’ was as good as any.

_Barry ___

____

____

The three of them had left the stadium shortly after he had finished his run, heading back across campus to Oliver's car so they could drive to the apartment they shared that was technically still on campus but not on campus.

Iris had already retired to her room with Eddie, who had beaten them back by a few minutes. Sara would still be out with Nyssa for the night, so it left Barry and Oliver on the couch watching the Baseball Tonight wrap up and enjoying a late-night pizza.

“Hey man, did you notice those three who were watching is from behind the stairs when we left the arena?” Oliver asked, and Barry sputtered up some beer, completely surprised by Oliver’s question because _no, I hadn’t noticed _was all Barry could think.__

“No I didn’t. Did you know them?” Barry asked, playing off how oblivious he had been.

“I didn’t think you or Iris did, but I noticed them cut from our line of site as we left the arena. One was a blonde I’ve seen around campus and the guy and the girl were new to me. But the other girl, a brunette, had on a t-shirt that was vaguely familiar. Mind if I look in your closet, I think you have the same one?” Oliver said, more of a statement than asking for permission.

“Go ahead, now I’m curious.” Barry said, following his best friend into his modest sized apartment room.

Oliver rooted through the closet until he found the soft cotton t-shirt in a faded blue tinted grey with an iconic logo that Barry had known most of his life.

“Holy shit dude she was wearing a 'Milo Goes to College Shirt'?” Barry asked, incredulous.

“Yeah this is definitely it. I didn’t know the design off hand but I’ve never seen another shirt that looks vaguely like this until tonight.

“Dude that’s so rad. She might be a punk. Cool.” Barry was excited, but knew his odds of ever seeing this girl again were slim to none.

Oliver must have notice the look on his face, because he put his hand on his shorter friend’s shoulder. “Look man, just because I’ve never seen her doesn’t mean you’ll never meet her. I noticed some things when they were walking. They all had lab coats in their arms and they all had backpacks, so they probably came from the science and engineering building my dad had built last year. And the blonde I see every Tuesday at Geology, so maybe I can track her down and get some answers. Let me see if I can help you find this dream nerd Barry, because the odds of another punk rocker in our science program can’t be too great.” Oliver finished, taking his seat on the couch falling back into his habitual silence.

They sat like that for another hour or so, in silence, with baseball and other sport highlights playing on the TV, neither giving it their full attention.

And when they said goodnight, they both went to their respective rooms and prepared for their night in different ways. Oliver did his hundred pull ups, sit ups, and push ups before retiring.

Barry did what he did best. He put on Rancid’s ‘Let’s Go' and danced around a bit, cleaning up his room and putting away the dirty laundry in its hamper and selecting an outfit for the next day, happy for the first time in a long while at the possibilities that lay before him. He could run again. His friends were by his side. And apparently, there was another punk on campus who wasn’t into the poser style and was into the same classics he was. The future held more promise for Barry than it had in a very long time. But a lifetime of bad news, hard breaks, and disappointment didn’t let his optimism run wild. Not yet.


	2. Start Walking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The much anticipated (by my friends, anyway) meeting of Felicity and Oliver and how their fates will be throwing Caitlin and Barry into each others path at some point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Start Walking” by Off With Their Heads  
> “But I do what I do cause I think it's fun  
> It never helps, it turns me into my father's son  
> Here comes the light and it takes my hand  
> We'll go to a place where I can stand the skin I'm in  
> It's a long way back to be anything that anyone could love”

_Oliver_  
  
Oliver Queen had come a long way since the death of his father five years ago, but there was still a lot for him to learn and to adapt to in his road to becoming a responsible member of society, from learning to do good enough in school to being a better friend, especially those he had known the longest, like Barry and Sara.  
  
The Responsible Member of Society part was taking the longest to develop.  
  
Most of Oliver's nights were spent out partying, but he had found himself cutting back to just weekend excursions since his best friend had gotten his leg broken. Which put Oliver in the weird place of having time to study for exams. Which meant his solid, ‘we’re giving you this C to graduate because your family has a shit ton of money to donate’ became actually earned B’s and something in Oliver had made him want to start doing better on his own. His dad had left enough money in a trust for the school to keep building new facilities for as long as Oliver and Thea would attend school there, allowing him to secure his legacy and his children's future before his untimely demise.  
  
So that was how Oliver found himself in his Geography class every Tuesday and Thursday at noon, because it was actually a required science elective for his Criminal Justice Degree. And that was how he noticed the blonde who had been with the brunette girl that he had pointed out for Barry. Which was how Oliver found himself delaying the inevitable because this girl was cute and smart and he was not feeling like his usual ways would accomplish anything.  
  
“Mr. Queen,” came the curt voice of his professor, who was glaring at him.  
  
“Yes, Dr. Smithfield?” he replied, trying to straighten his posture.  
  
“Would you like to inform me what I just said for the last five minutes?” she asked, and he was screwed. Because he had, in fact, not been paying attention. And there were no notes on the board. And he couldn’t look to his side for answers. He was, as the cool kids say, totally screwed.  
  
“That would be easy if I hadn’t gotten lost in my thoughts on the types of rock that my family's house was built on, as my dad never walled the basement of the house, and I was curious if it was some type of composite from shale and limestone or if it were some light colored igneous rock. I never got around to asking him what it was. Sorry for any perceived disrespect,” Oliver answered, hoping his earnestness would cover up the blatant lie.  
  
“I’ll believe that when pigs fly, Mr. Queen. As for the topic of lecture, there wasn’t one. I was discussing your partners for your final project and you never responded the first five times I called your name. Please, for the love of God, pay attention next time,” she said, exasperated.  
  
“Sorry, Professor.”  
  
“Now, Mr. Queen, your partner for this project will be Ms. Smoak, up here in the front.” She pointed to the blonde girl that Oliver had been trying to think of a way to talk to. _Not often does fortune strikes me this good _, Oliver thought, completely missing the her make a small noise and lightly slamming her head on her desk. “And since I know all of you want class to be over early, that’s tough shit. Get with your partner and hammer out details for your presentations.” Dr. Smithfield said, walking back to her chair behind her lectern and gazing at all 100 of them like hawks.__  
  
Oliver picked up his bookbag and hoofed it over to the blonde girl, trying to conceal the small smile he had, because his luck was finally changing.  
  
She had a small glare in her eyes that Oliver couldn’t register, but he ignored it as he thought it was some extent second hand embarrassment from his earlier lack of attention.  
  
But in reality, the words “Hi, I’m Felicity Smoak” were said with more venom than he could know. 

____

__

_Felicity_

Of. Freaking. Course. Leave it to her to get paired up with the number one party boy at Central City University, with his rule flaunting and his bad grades and legendary status as achieving nothing notable in school. She’d be left to do ALL the work and he’d find some way to snake credit from her, she just knew it. His boyish smile and toned body made her certain he’d try and pull something fast to get her to do all the work, as boys of his type always did. Why not abuse the kind nerdy girl and her need for good grades to get myself ahead, they all thought of her. But this was college. She was an adult. Kind of. She wouldn’t stand for this indignity.  
  
“Hi, I’m Felicity Smoak,” she said curtly, silently seething. He was oblivious, it seemed.  
  
“Pleasure to meet you, Felicity. As our professor so kindly pointed out, I’m Oliver Queen. So how do you want to start our research? I was thinking of finding the data sets done by previous researchers and go from there,” he started off, and within 30 seconds every initial impression of Oliver Queen that Felicity had built in her head from the other night - not that she’d been thinking about him at all or anything - had been destroyed.  
  
“Uhhh,” she said, unintelligibly, and he had the gall to chuckle lightly before flashing her a kind smile and taking out his notebook.  
  
Oliver’s chuckle ended and he wrote down on the notepad something that she couldn’t read because it was upside down to her.  
  
“Hey Felicity, I know I cultivate a certain, uh, reputation, but I’ve been turning things around. I have a B average this year and I’ve been showing up to class, most of the time without a hangover,” he said, scratching his neck, almost as if he was nervous. Oliver Queen. Nervous.  
  
“Well. That’s nice to know,” Felicity said, not trusting herself to speak anymore than that for fear of the babbling that would ensue.  
  
Instead of answering, Oliver passed her the sheet he had been writing on, and it included a division of labor that she found both fair and not insulting to her or her intellect. And he had written at the bottom: _Library? 5pm?_  
  
And then the inevitable swoon hit her stomach, despite the obvious non-romantic implications of the invitation.  
  
“Yes I would like that a lot and we can get a lot done and I’m excited to see you work. But not in a weird, creepy, stalker way but like a solid companion and working friend way who does their own work too and I’m going to stop talking now...” Felicity said, snapping her lips shut and feeling her face flush red.  
  
All Oliver did was smile kindly back at her, put his notebook away, and stand to leave. Felicity was on her feet before he was, handing her his phone.  
  
“Uhm Felicity, I think that’s yous?” he said, confused but good naturedly  
  
“Number,” she mumbled, and then realized coherent thoughts would be needed. “Oh. Uhm. Put your phone number in and text me and then we can find each other when we go to get some work done at the library,” she finished, nearly out of breath from her rapid fire pace.  
  
Oliver smiled at her and put his number in before texting himself, and then he just looked at her almost awkwardly. And then he just smiled, said “Bye,” and could have sworn he was blushing when he walked away.  
  
She looked at her phone and saw Oliver’s number in it and part of her was thrilled at the prospect having the phone number of the most eligible millionaire bachelor in all of Central City. Although, honestly, she was more thrilled that he was interesting and smarter than he came off.  
  
Felicity then high tailed it back to her dorm, hoping to tell Caitlin about her wild morning, knowing her roommate would still be dead asleep from her long day and that she had the whole day off. So when she came to their door, she was unsurprised to hear what sounded like one of Caitlin's punk songs playing on her speaker. The sight before her was comical upon opening the door, as she saw her dancing around, her loose brunette hair flailing everywhere as she rocked her head, singing into her hairbrush along with the song, horribly out of tune but in the true bliss that comes from pure enjoyment.  
  
 _“I say fuck authority. Silent majority! Raised by the system! Now it's time to rise against them! We're sick of your treason! Sick of your lies! Fuck no, we won't listen! We're gonna open your eyes! Frustration, domination…_ Felicity!” Caitlin exclaimed, throwing her hairbrush into the ceiling and letting it hit the ground, the roar of Pennywise still going in the background before she regained her sense and pressed pause on her phone.  
  
“Oh. My God. That was the greatest thing I have ever witnessed, I wish I got it on video.” Felicity teased, watching Caitlin deflate as she fell in a huff onto her bed, her ecstasy of dance and music quickly forgotten.  
  
“That was the third most humiliating moment of my entire life, Felicity. And I’ve been stood up at prom and I’ve eaten shit in front of one of my favorite bands during a mosh pit,” Caitlin said, lowering her head to her knees to hide her blush from embarrassment.  
  
Felicity swooped onto the bed of her best friend and wrapped her in the biggest bear hug her small form could muster, and Caitlin nuzzled into her playfully, and they both sat up, moods lifted and in a good mood.  
  
“So why are you back, exactly? You never ditch class and I know you have Computer Programming at noon. It’s 11:50 and you never miss. What’s up?” Caitlin asked, mild concern in her voice.  
  
“Dude it’s totally okay. I met Oliver Queen today, and he was so funny and affable.”  
  
“Did you just use the words funny and affable to describe Central City’s most eligible playboy millionaire wild child whom you and Cisco made me hide from last night? That Oliver Queen?” Caitlin asked, prodding Felicity lightly as she made her point.  
  
“Okay yeah that Oliver Queen, and he was just. So nice. And he isn’t an airhead, he’s really kind and so willing to get work done and even his bullshit answer when he had zoned out in class was pretty thoughtful. Plus. The man has the abs and biceps of a god. There are worse things than working on this project for the rest of the semester with him. We have a meeting at the library tonight to get some research done,” Felicity said, having gained speed with every word she spoke to the point where her words were coming out so rapidly Caitlin strained to follow.  
  
“You make this seem bad. Why?” Caitlin said, standing up to put on a long sleeve cotton shirt and appreciate its soft comfort before returning to Felicity, who had started pacing once she sat back down.  
  
“Look. Just. So. He’s so hot, I can’t possibly stay away Caitlin. And I have to focus. AND get things done... I know! Come with me and just work on a lab report,” Felicity said, jumping in the air as if she’d solved her biggest coding project of the year.  
  
“I really don’t want to third wheel Fel. And I have actual work to get done. Here. In the comfort of my PJ’s and I had planned to play the Bad Religion Trinity while I did my write ups,” Caitlin said, laying back on her bed.  
  
“Okay I get that’s probably some big nice event. But dude. Library. Me. Oliver. I need a wingman. Wingwoman. Whatever it doesn’t matter, but I need you Cait. And I can ask him to bring a friend if it might make help things less weird?” Felicity said, hoping this would sell her on it.  
  
While Caitlin made her hum of contemplation, Felicity heard her phone ring, and went to grab it. _Hey, my roommate wanted to come along because he has a Lab Report to write and needed to access one of the human anatomy bins and a finish up a partner-paper for our CJU 230 class and figured he’d kill two birds with one stone. Hope that’s okay with you. Let me know if it isn’t. See you at 5, Oliver._  
  
And in that moment the words going through Felicity’s mind were things like well fuck, oh my god this is perfect, and shit. But when she showed the text, Caitlin vocalized all these thoughts, groaned, and attempted to catch a nap as Felicity went to her computer to play a game to calm her nerves.  
  
Little did they know on the other side of campus a similar conversation was happening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN:  
> Cliffhanger-ish? Maybe? Who knows. But this is Chapter two and it’s a setup and what better excuse to use my other faves in the ultimate set up capacity. And some things really are just a twist of fate, huh?  
> The intro lyrics for this were more of just an homage to moody Oliver from the show and some mildly angsty backstory later on. And also. Like. Pennywise (the band) y’all. I’m seeing them live in town at an awesome venue for New Year's Eve and the hype is real. The song Caitlin is singing is their iconic anthem “Fuck Authority” off of their album ‘Land of the Free’ and is one of my all time personal favorites. I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you think. Thanks!  
> And any characters I use that aren't super liked or popular are generally a means to an end. Don't freak out over shipping and stuff beyond the main pairs I listed in the bio. 
> 
> PS:  
> Thank you all so much for reading. I'm so sorry about the delay but school and work and life really just suck right now so yeah sorry again. I hope everyone is enjoying their lives and stuff. Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please let me know what you think! I hope you enjoyed it. 
> 
> Authors Note: While it is my goal to update regularly, college and work and maybe a second job might make it hard but unlike most things I write I really don't want to abandon this so I won't if I can help it. And I will definitely swing around back to my other works after this semester probably. 
> 
> Again. Never can give Eccacia enough credit for getting me to both write this and post it. Your are without a doubt the best of all. Thank you, my friend
> 
> Songs used in this Chapter:  
> "Supersonic: by Bad Religion (2002)  
> "Let Us Hear Your Voice" by Pennywise (2012)  
> "Rejected" by Rancid (1993)  
> "Quality or Quantity" by Bad Religion (1990)
> 
> Albums Mentioned:  
> "Milo Goes to College" by Descendents  
> "The Complete Discography " by Minor Threat  
> "Lets Go" by Rancid
> 
> Not a single song on these albums disappoints honestly and I listened to all of them in their entirety when I was writing and editing this.


End file.
